Graphics, such as letters, numbers, licensed characters, figures, and other images are commonly attached to garments and other textiles. Some graphics are adhered to garments using various methods, including heat transfer techniques. These adhesion-type graphics are commonly manufactured commercially from a blank “sheet” of material, many times stored in and retrieved from large rolls of material. The “sheet” material is typically comprised of a graphic layer, which may be cotton, plastic, film, polyester or some other material, and a carrier layer or backing substrate, commonly made from Mylar or plastic. FIG. 1 illustrates a roll 10 of known graphic/carrier material 11, which includes an upper graphic material 12 and an underlying carrier material 14. The graphic layer 12 is usually releasably adhered to the carrier layer 14. The graphic layer 12 comprises the layer of material from which the desired graphics will be cut, and the carrier layer 14 is used to maintain the shape of the graphic and/or the tackiness of the back side of the graphic at all times until the graphic is applied to a garment, i.e., during transport and all other forms of handling. The blank graphic/carrier material 11 is usually automatically unrolled into an automated machine that cuts graphics into the continuous roll of material and then cuts the continuous roll of material into “sheets” that can more easily be sold, transported and handled.
Various commercially-viable techniques exist for cutting graphics into blank graphic/carrier material. One such exemplary system is illustrated in FIG. 2. System 20 includes an electronic controller 22 and an automated cutting machine 24. The system 20 may also include input/output devices 28 and a display device 26 connected to the controller 22. The electronic controller 22 may be a known electronic controller, such as a central processing unit of a computer, for example. Automated cutting machine 24 typically includes an apparatus, such as a bracket arm 23, for storing the roll 10 of graphic/carrier material 11 and allowing the material to be pulled through the cutting machine 24. The cutting machine 24 includes a cutting device 29, such as a laser. The cutting device may also be a knife blade or other similar device capable of cutting material. The cutting device 29 may be configured to be moved laterally across the material 11 to cut a graphic 25, e.g., “O”, into the material 11 as it is pulled longitudinally through the machine 24. The controller 22 is programmed to cause the cutting device 29 to cut the desired graphic shapes into the graphic layer 12 without cutting the carrier layer 14. To effectively cut the outline of the graphic 25 into the graphic material 12 without cutting the underlying carrier material 14, the cutting device 29 must be precisely positioned and controlled to a constant cutting force and/or energy level.
The inventors hereof have recognized an aspect of this type of process that results in inefficiency with respect to certain letters, such as “A”, “B”, “D”, “O”, “Q”, and “R”, for example, and other letters, numbers and graphics that have a fully-enclosed open void area within the graphic. The inefficiency results from the fact that waste graphic material filling the area of the graphic intended to be a fully-enclosed open void area remains in place on the carrier material after the graphic has been cut into the graphic material. As a result, it is common for commercial manufacturers of these types of graphics to manually “weed” the waste graphic material filling the fully-enclosed open void area from the carrier material. For example, a worker may use tweezers to manually remove the already-cut waste graphic material from the carrier material. FIG. 3A illustrates a graphic “O” cut into a graphic material 11 prior to “weeding.” The waste graphic material 34 of the void area is still in place on the carrier material 14. FIG. 3B illustrates the graphic “O” from FIG. 3A after the “weeding” process, where the waste graphic material 34 has been removed and the carrier material 14 shows through the void area. The manual “weeding” process is time consuming, and, as a result, costly.
The inventors hereof have devised a method and system for creating graphics from a graphic material having an underlying carrier material that reduces the need for post-cutting manual “weeding” of graphics that have a fully-enclosed open void area, and, as a result, is more efficient and cost-effective.